Fed Up!

 I'm getting pretty fed up with the beating Governor Perry is taking over Texas' in school tuition for children of illegals. I'll start this by baldy stating that Governor Perry could do a much better job explaining the position. Granted, Perry isn't particularly glib. I do wonder how he would do if the debates were held during working hours. The man was a farm kid, early to bed, early to rise and all that. Some of us are just naturally morning people, I wonder if growing up on a farm reinforced that.

 Anyhow, this is why I'm fed up with this whole affair. A governor, any governor, cannot deport anyone. The Federal government can but won't. This leaves the governors left to deal with the illegals in their states the best way they and the legislatures can. Meanwhile, the feds require that we in the states give medical care, education K-12, equal protection in law enforcement and the courts, etc.

 Now, by my count there are forty-six states that do not border Mexico.  I believe Obama counts fifty-four although the one state of the fifty-eight he hadn't visited might also border Mexico. Still, we can all agree that the great mass of the votes in Congress come from states that are not on that border but do count in setting border enforcement and deporting illegals. Heck, by my count we have NO states bordering Kenya but we can't seem to deport Obama's illegal immigrant aunts, uncles and whoever we don't yet know about.

 I'm pretty sure that if all fifty-seven, excuse me for the Obama math, fifty states put their feet down hard, we could get a handle on the illegals here. Instead, people want to blame the folks living in the border states.

 Now I was last in a K-12 classroom in 1964. So please do not put me down as an expert on education. Still, I have my memory. Well, most of it, since the stroke. Anyway, as I recall, there were two kinds of kids disrupting the classes, making it hard on everyone else. the first kind was the kids who would now be in special education, which was in it's infancy back then. There were special ed classes in the big cities, us smaller towns, well, not yet. There was another kind of disruptive kid, though. the bright kids who were bored. I confess to being in that class. I had learned to read, write and cipher by the time I had finished Junior High. Had there been an exam for a high school diploma at the end of eighth grade I would have passed it, hands down. Unfortunately, that is not, and was not the way the system worked. A kid who left school at 16 had almost no chance for a decent job, couldn't enlist in the Service, much less a smartassed fourteen year old. anyway it was not legal for me to drop out at fourteen, I was really stuck. I was also a huge pain in the ass to all concerned.

 After eighth grade the only reason I was in school was because I HAD to be. Ring any bells? I knew I wasn't going to college, there was no money for that in those days. So, like most of the children of today's illegals, I was bored, uninterested and uncaring. I had maybe three teachers all through high school that could, or would, keep me interested enough to not be too big a pain.The rest of the time, no dice. There were actually a couple of classes where other students helped to keep me in line. Some teachers were smart enough to let me read a book or try to write short stories, others faced the full on rebellion of a bright, bored kid. I spent a lot of time in the Vice Principal's office. The vice principal used to turn an interesting shade of purple when I told him about what I didn't give.

 Now, I'll admit, I'm a mess. And it took a smart judge, a military recruiting office with a quota and The Southeast Asian War Games to straighten me out, even after that it was touch and go. I got my GED in the service. I believe there were five subjects, graded on the percentile system where a 99% was the high score. I scored two of those, and a 98%, and my low score subject, Math, was an 83%. It would have saved the educational system, and me, a lot of grief had I been able to take that test earlier and then do something, anything, but sit in those open-window prisons classrooms. Still, fifty years later than I should have been able to take that test, I guess I'm okay. I hope the vice principal got over it and I hope I didn't damage too many of my classmates too badly.

 What's that got to do with today and the beating my governor is taking? Well, today there are probably no K-12 public schools in Texas without children of illegal immigrants. Some of the children were brought in, others are birthright citizens themselves. Sill others are mixed, children who were brought in with sibling who are birthright citizens.

 Meanwhile our schools cannot ask, much less demand, that children prove they are here legally. Heck, it's hard enough to get them to prove they've had their shots.  (Why we keep having Measles and other outbreaks). In many schools these kids are the majority. Can the children who are actually interested in getting an education help keep other kids in line? Well, there were times in my life it worked.

 Now, I'll say it again, I'm no educrat. I do know what one kid, bored and stuck in a classroom with no hope of doing anything with an education after learning to read, write and cipher, can do to the atmosphere in a classroom. So, the Texas Legislature, not really as liberal a body as, say, California, passed a law, trying to give these kids that they cannot, and the feds will no, deport, a reason to stay in those classrooms. The Texas Governor, who cannot, and the feds will not, deport these kids, signed that law. I do not know whether Gov. Perry really likes that law or if he just saw how overwhelming the margin was and knew that a veto would be overridden.

 I do know that the reason we ware stuck with all these kids, and their parents, and Obama's scofflaw relations, plus God only knows who else, is not because of anything Perry, or Brewer of Arizona, or even Gov. Moonbeam of California is doing. Nor Governor Martinez of New Mexico. Funny, as different as California and Texas are, the answer to those kids in the schools is much the same. Well, except that the kids in Texas do not fly the Mexican flag over Old Glory.

 Immigration is a federal issue. There are, by my count, fifty Senators and four hundred and thirty-five reps. Only eight Senators are from states that border Mexico. I submit that if the rest of the residents of the United States are sick of illegals they would force the feds to do something effective about making them stop coming and the ones here to go home. 

 Dear rest of the country. Since you will not, or can not, force your congressional reps to make the United States first control the borders and next, deport the illegals, stop jabbing the state governments who do the best they can with a problem they did not cause and have no way to cure.

 Dear rest of the Republican candidates. Please stop beating up the only man in the pack who is having to deal with a problem he did not cause and has no way to cure. Maybe the Legislature of the State of Texas is wrong. maybe Perry should have vetoed the bill and lost whatever political capital it would have cost having that veto overridden. I don't know, and we will never know. What we do know is that the entire nation has let the political class in Washington ignore it's responsibility And we're stuck with it. Nobody more than us on the border.

 Instead of beating up on Perry, hold your own congresscritter's feet to the fire. Demand meaningful border enforcement. And not a wall, Perry is right. A thirty foot wall would mean a lot of thirty-five foot ladders. Some places would need good stout fences, other places boots on the ground, still others, the desert is all we need with some eyes in the sky and some helo born BP Agents. Demand that the electronic verification of social security numbers actually work. make it really possible for an employer to check if a job applicant is really allowed to work here and then make a meaningful punishment for employers who break the law. Do something intelligent about anchor babies. For that matter, do something intelligent about anchor nephew Presidents! Oh, heck, demand Congress do something, anything intelligent about anything.

 In other countries, is a child of an illegal entrant a citizen of the country the parents are from or of the country they are in illegally? I ask this, I do not know. I do know that Mexico's laws about citizenship and illegal entry are draconian. Yet they demand that ours are ignored. I do not know why we are so eager to embrace other country's laws on anything but this.

 Please don't think this is an endorsement of Perry for President. While I will say he's head and shoulders above Obama, he is not my very first choice. My favorite is Palin, although she's been demonized so badly her chances are few. I really like Cain although government is a skill and Obama is proving that it's a skill one learns by doing. (Actually I'm not sure Obama is capable of learning at this point.) Although I also remember living through the Carter presidency where he proved that being a governor does not always mean one has the skill to govern. I would have to hold my nose awfully hard to vote for Romney. Gingrich is a really smart guy who ought to be in a think tank, thinking, when he's not playing with his harem.Ron Paul? Well, he's RON PAUL!  I still don't like him much.I like a lot of his supporters less. Bachmann? Oh, please. The rest of the crowd? Welcome to Munchkin Land.

 Actually we have a very strong bench, Rubio and West, both need executive experience, Rubio more than West, at least West has commanded. West's soldiers and a lot of veterans would charge Hell with a leaky canteen cup of warm water with West in the lead.Those guys and Lousisiana's Jindal, that feller up in Wisconsin giving the government worker unions fits, yes, a very deep bench for 2016-2020. Thing is, we've got 2012 to win and win it we must if we are going to save the country withot a war. Of the crowd that has declared, Perry is still my favorite, if only because he's done a pretty good, though not perfect job here.

 We have two problems, the Washington Republicans and the Democrats/ national media. The Washington, or establishment Republicans don't much like Perry, they're committed to Romney like they were committed to McCain. We saw how well that worked. The establishment Republicans also have this dream: someday, if they just promote the Republican that the media says they like in the primaries, the media will treat him nice in the general. We saw how well that worked in '08. Couple this with a national media that will say anything to make a Dem look good and a Republican look bad. And it works. nearly half of the country believes that Palin actually said "I can see Russia from my house ." This makes for an uphill battle. Our advantage is that, as much as they try, Obama can't run too far from his own record.

 All I know for sure is that we have to end the circular firing squad of these early debates. Oh, and when, oh when, are we actually going to have debates for the Republican nomination with questions and moderation by Republicans?

  Not, Politics, family: Robin, our number two boy out east in NASCAR country, living near the Charelotte Motor Speedway called last night. They're pregnant again. The baby is due in late March, early April. They're just about old enough to where increasing age might be a concern. Those kids are the ones who, although they graduated from a Church of Christ school, Harding University in Searcy Arkansas, converted to the Catholic Church. Kind of simple why, Robin's wife Meleah is blind. Of the various parents involved in the education programs they were in for their boys, only the Catholic parents were of any help, the way Christians are supposed to act with their brethren and sisteren. So, Meleah converted. Robin got the last word in, he said, yes dear. Now Meleah is more Catholic than the Pope. Anyhow,we're praying this one doesn't end up a miscarriage like the last one. Although, really, four boys is enough. Although we wouldn't complain if a girl comes along. Anyhow, please, Lord, a healthy baby, if that be your will. (Lord, with Meleah bein' blind with four boys, one autistic, they do have enough troubles. So, a little luck here, please.)

 Speaking of a little luck, Stephanie called, one to the twins that just had their birthday. Anyhow, she (or her hubby who plays with things) found what might be a lump in her breast. She has an appointment tomorrow. Of course after breast feeding three boys (and probably one husband some) there are things in breasts that kind of feel like the lumps that give trouble. Anyhow, Lord, if we haven't already used up all our good fortune so far...Thanks.